Books Relevant to Edgework
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Melton, Gary & Petrila, J., Poythress, N., Slobogin, C. The gold-standard resource for forensic psychological concerns – both on the part of mental health professionals and lawyers. I am in agreement with their statement that judges and juries are LEAST swayed by psychometric testing, and most by phenomenological information (clinical interviews, etc. – information that makes the subject a real person). My greatest concern is that, for both legal reasons and the authors’ perspective on ethics, they very strongly state that the evaluator should express no opinions as to risk. It is their opinion that the evaluator has too much power to sway a court, with little to no track-record of better prediction than lay-people. It is my view, however, that the evaluator must express opinions, BUT must be able to both explain and support any interpretations – that it is the task of the lawyer to demand that the evaluator both make sense and explain what the information he or she acquired means to him or her…and thus, possibly to the court.
Rogers, Richard, Ed. My edition is a decade and a half old – I therefore, would not be surprised if it has been updated. Not an easy read, but absolutely excellent information – on both clinical (unstructured interview) and psychometric evaluation methods (structured interview methods) to detect malingering and deception of mental illness.
Walters, Stan B. Readable and easy to use book on the observation in changes in behavior and other patterns of communication that indicate stress, and possibly lying. Collins, Paul Ranges from stories of “The Wild Child” to the techs at Microsoft, who turn on a video feed on their laptops to watch the speech of the man in the auditorium speaking in front of them. It may be that human genius would be impossible without autism – Isaac Newton, for example, was almost certainly autistic. Collins conveys the world of the autistic with profound empathy – and this, sometimes, is even more powerful than a first person account, because he can convey what he knows in translation. Most significantly, this book is about Collins, his wife and their son, Morgan – aged three – and their passionate love for this little boy, and his, ever so subtle, emerging from autism into relationship.
Donovan, John & Zucker, Karen Autism's First Child, Atlantic Online Magazine, October, 2010 An account of Donald Gray Triplett, 77, of Forest, Mississippi, the first person ever diagnosed with autism. And his long, happy, surprising life. Hadden, Mark The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Vintage Books, New York, N.Y., 2003 A novel, written, as-if, by a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome trying to “detect” who killed a neighbor’s dog. A book of enormous empathy, the writer captures the boy’s absolute honesty, and the inner world of a child who is “not interested” in faces, and finds peace in dark closets and mathematics, and imagines a world where all the “normal” people are gone and he can simply live in peace without the chaos that such people bring.
Ortiz, John M. The Gifts of Asperger, The Asperger's Syndrome Institute, P.O. Box 113, Dillsburrg, PA 17019., 2006 This wonderful book, using first person accounts from people with high-functioning autism (HFA) or Asperger's syndrome, their caregivers, teachers, or therapists, focuses on the positive aspects of this puzzling condition: their absolute honesty, their ability to focus like a laser on a subject that interests them, their sometimes inordinate talents and intellectual brilliance. To be sure, such people can have enormous difficulties in negotiating life, but there are innumerable books about that. Here is a book that honestly (not in any Pollyanna way) focuses on the positives. For us, the "neurotypical," this may be the closest opportunity we ever have to meet "alien" intelligences, yet, at the same time, people, at heart, just like us. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who encounters or who lives with someone with HFA
Prince-Hughes, Dawn Lyrically written book by a woman who has Asperger’s Syndrome (so-called high-functioning autism). She is intellectually brilliant, and yet, finds many aspects of life among humans to be overwhelming. This is a life-story, where she describes becoming “socialized” through contact with gorillas at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington. She is currently an anthropologist, and a very convincing advocate for the position that the “great apes” are, in fact, human in all the ways we define ourselves. It is also a lovely counterpoint to The Dark Side of Man, (see in the section on Criminals) in describing the gentle side of primate behavior.
Moon, Elizabeth THE SPEED OF DARK Del Rey Books - Random House, New York, N.Y., 2005 A fictional book, set in the near future, which tells the story of an autistic man from the inside out. A very touching story, written by the mother of an autistic young man – you will actually be able to experience some of the world that the autistic person lives. Beautifully written, it poses the dilemma – the hero is a very lovable, very eccentric man, as are his compatriots in the company they work, doing pattern analysis. They have been offered a new treatment that will make them “normal.” What will then become of the men and women they are, that they struggled so hard to become? How much of our self is our experience, our history and our memories? With what degree of change are we no longer we? You truly will finish this book apprehending the possibility of experiencing the world quite differently that the way that you do now.
Sea, Scott Planet Autism Even in some of the wonderful books listed in this section, one can get a mistaken idea about how terrible a disorder autism can be, and how utterly helpless anyone can be to make things even the slightest degree better. Autism has become a "diagnosis de jour," with people being described or even claiming to have a "touch of Aspergers." It is also not surprising that most of the books on autism describe remarkable people, either those with "splinter talents," such as a remarkable ability to remember, calculate or draw, or people who may have social deficits, but are, nonetheless, productive members of society. There is a start reality, however, that is not written about so often: it is at once too horrible and too mundane. Stories about severe autism, quite simply, provide no reading pleasure and they describe lives that pathology dictates end up much the same. This small essay, by a father of a severely autistic daughter, expresses empathy for another father who killed his autistic son and then himself. After reading about his own life, you will be humbled by the love and caring that he and his wife are able to express, while wondering if you could offer even a fraction of that, were you in the same situation. BODY, BRAIN, & MIND Ackerman, Diane Ackerman is one of the most beautiful writers on the planet. This book will introduce you to the brain, to the mind and to mundane, yet wondrous experiences in this world. You will not only learn facts about the brain, but you will do so in a way that will illuminate the world you live in. Many people are put off by books on neurology, finding it's alien terminology impenetrable, and the end result rather depressing - the idea comes across that we are merely secretions of a soggy organ. With Ackerman, imagine the brain as a whirling ordered storm of stars and lightening, with us coalescing, an entity within that net of stars.
Ekman, Paul Paul Ekman is the pre-eminent researcher on facial expression. His work is the basis of the popular TV series, "Lie to Me." An excellent, well-written book on how basic emotions are universal, and reveal themselves on the face in recognizable patterns to people from any culture on earth. In addition, essential information on the evolutionary forces which created emotional responses as survival mechanism, and how identification of emotional responses at their outset can improve both communication and our ability to manage dysfunctional emotional responses
Gonzales, Laurence A book that explores what character traits, and what neurological organization support and hinder survival in the most extreme of conditions.
Horgan, John A very readable, very controversial, book which questions the limits of science in regards to the mind. He finds that no form of therapy works better than any other, that many of the claims of benefits derived from psychotropic medications are ill-founded, and that we have not succeeded, in explaining what it is to be conscious or aware. Many of the most prominent medications prove to be little more than placebos, and sometimes less. He also discusses evolutionary psychology, which applies "just so" stories which may be plausible to explain how we became what we are, and how artificial intelligence is limited by our inability to define what it is to be aware. His central point is what he calls the "humpty Dumptyilemma," that neuroscientists and psychologists can break down mind and brain in any number of systems or localized parts, but we cannot assemble those pieces into any meaningful whole. (Yet, here we are). NOTE: His ideas are a counter to those of Ray Kurzweil (below).
Kurzweil, Ray The rate of technological advance increases at exponential rates. According to Kurzweil, through a three stage development of biotech, nanotech and artificial technology, we will reach the absolute merger of humanity with machine/computers by mid-century. The book weaves together a number of strands of information on neurology and artificial intelligence analogues (often digital, of course). The potential improvement of in the human condition through biotech and nanotech is very exciting, even going so far as potentially offering the ability to download one's neurological organization into new bodies in the event of unfortunate incidents (like death). His ultimate vision - a macrocosmic intelligence turning the entire universe into one "computer" - God, so to speak - with all of "us" merged into this intelligence - is as disheartening as thrilling. It leaves the same disquiet as A.C. Clarke's Childhood's End. Human consciousness, per Damasio, is root - no, created - through the body and emotions. Kurzweil envisions a wonderful era in which human intelligence, experience and intelligence somehow flourishes within a multi-"dimension" virtual world. But what relevance does, for example, a van Gogh, have to a largely non-human intelligence, given that its beauty is rooted in its twist on real vision. Furthermore, love requires an object that is beyond oneself. Given that all consciousness is to "merge" within a super-consciousness, what would that "consciousness" love? Leading right back to the ancient myth of the Kabala that, God, being both love and everything, withdrew himself from himself, creating a void within which creation happens, thereby giving Divinity something to love. At any rate, it is a book that will shake one's foundations - but what would shake them more would be if he is right, that, in large part, much of what he predicts will happen. Soon.
THE BOOKS OF OLIVER SACKS Incredibly humane, beautifully written, and providing wondrous insight into people with neurological dysfunctions and other ways of perceiving the world. AWAKENINGS
The book that the movie was based on – an account of an attempt to “awaken” people who had been locked into near coma for many decades, as an after-effect of the Great Flu Epidemic. THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT Essays as lovely as the best of short stories, about people whose neurological disorders cause uncanny distortions of perception and intellect. Sacks is remarkably compassionate and respectful throughout.
A LEG TO STAND ON
After a mountain fall, Sacks got a severely injured leg. Most frighteningly, he was afflicted by a neurological condition in which the leg no longer felt like is own. A beautiful account of himself as a patient – explores one’s sense of physical identity, and illness and healing. MIGRAINE
Essays on this remarkable, still unexplained condition. UNCLE TUNGSTEN: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
This one isn’t about neurology – it is his biography – but it perfectly sets the other books, like frame to picture. And, you will appreciate chemistry in a way you, perhaps, never imagined that you would. AN ANTHROPOLOGIST FROM MARS
Marvelous case study/essays on people asperger'syndrome, amnesia and color blindness. Sach's, as always, is gentle, humane and brilliant.
Rothbart, Davy Article on the effect of internet porn on the libido of young men, and how it's affecting relationships between men and women (badly). In essence, we are rewiring our sexuality from a sensual, bodily experience, to one primarily linked to visual stimuli, rapid-fire changing images, and "sexual performance" far divorced from that of living, breathing human beings.
Semrau, Stanley & Gale, Judy Great stories of crimes and trials from an eminent forensic psychiatrist. He explains, in very entertaining fashion, just what a legitimate insanity defense based on diminished capacity should be. CHILDREN Bornstein, David Human beings' experience their heart soften in the presence of a baby. Even damaged human beings. A wonderful program in schools that introduces kids to the care of tiny babies - with the result that violence and bullying decreases radically. We sometimes spend so much time creating special new therapies when the disorder can be that our children are growing up in a way that is biologically unsound. Through most of human history, children spent time with tiny ones. It is a fair assumption that the care of the vulnerable elicits empathy - and this program seems to prove it.
Glasser, Howard & Easley, Jennifer There is Pollyanna sweetness to this book that drives me up the wall. BUT, it is, nonetheless, a wonderful resource for families who have children with behavioral problems. The approach focuses on kids earning points to get privileges, but it is done in a way that the child becomes responsible for earning all the good things in life through good behavior. It has the best way of imposing consequences that I’ve ever seen. Finally, this approach is a great way to start when the parents have had difficulty with anger in their own right. Most parents with anger difficulties are frustrated, unskilled, or feel profoundly incompetent to change their miserable situation with their kids, whom they, nonetheless, love. This approach gives the parents a “toolbox” so that they know what to do. They learn to set limits and discipline, and give their kids something up-to-now lacking – real guidance and leadership. Again, the tone can easily make the reader thing that this book is a “liberal,” – let the children have their way – type of book, but read on. It is quite the opposite. It offers parents a chance to be really strong, really clear on values, and openly loving at the same time. www.difficultchild.com
Louv, Richard LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder Algonquin Books [a division of Workman Press], Chapel Hill, NC, 2005 A marvelous book that makes the case that modern children’s separation from nature has an effect on the psyche through actual neurological development. The brain evolved within natural settings, and children throughout the world through most of human evolution shared many of the same characteristics: access to nature as their playground, a need to create their own play, toys and games, and the freedom to live in an unsupervised society of their own, often away from adult eyes. Louv asserts that the atomization of children – each one alone in front of a video or TV screen, and the over-involvement of adults even in their play – creates kids with poor attention span (called ADHD), and an inability to create their own enjoyment, and sort out power relationships.
Sax, Leonard Basic Books [a division of Perseus Books] Philadelphia, PA, 2007
Sax’s book is considered by many to be controversial. He asserts that boys, in particular, often do far better in same-sex classrooms. He calls into question a lot of the diagnoses for ADHD and similar youth “disorders,” and states that the medications used to alleviate this alleged condition damage a part of the brain associated with motivation. He raises concern about how over-exposure to visual stimuli – video games and TV in particular –have a damaging effect on the development of the child/adolescent brain. Sax also discussions in detail the subject of phtalines – estrogen-like substances found in plastic containers and other areas of the food chain, which may be profoundly affecting the hormonal systems of your children.
CRIMINALS, VIOLENCE & PSYCHOPATHS Allen, Bud & Bosta, Diana The slang dates the book, and so does some of the psychology and rehabilitation theory that frames it in the forward and afterwards. BUT – this book is absolutely dead-center when describing criminal cons. The setting for most of the book is prison, but it equally applies in the outside world. Graphically shows how the psychopath uses some of your best qualities (empathy, a desire to help, for example) as the leverage to gain power. Don’t consider working in a corrections setting or law enforcement unless you’ve read this!
Amis, Martin An book-length essay that wonders how the murderous reign of Stalin was somehow different, both in character, but more importantly, in the eyes of the “free world” than that of Hitler. And, if his description of Stalin is true, then here we have a picture of how a country would be run were a psychopath to be its absolute ruler.
Baumeister, Roy F. A very readable blend of data from social psychology and anthropology, presenting a viewpoint of evil and violence from the perspective of the perpetrator, not the victim. If one wants to understand how perpetrators view themselves, this is among the very best places to start. Particularly valuable is Baumeister’s chapter that establishes that criminally violent individuals usually have high (albeit brittle) self-esteem rather than popular psychology’s common fantasy that their self-esteem is low. One place I do find him deficient is that he doesn’t adequately consider violence as ecstasy (“impact” takes you out of yourself). The closest he comes is in his discussion of sadism – taking pleasure in causing harm – but this is, in fact, quite different.
Black, Donald This is a pretty good book. However, it is like the Hubble Telescope before they put the proper lenses in – you can see the objects better than you would otherwise, but there is still a blur. Black is an eminent researcher and clinician, and the book cites a number of valuable works (the bibliography alone is probably worth the book). However, despite being aware of, even citing, the work of Robert Hare (see below), he doesn’t adequately learn from his work. Based on his note on Hare’s book at the end of his own, it appears that professional rivalry rather than science leads to what I consider Black’s blind spot, because there is a real difference between anti-social personality (ASP) and psychopathy. The current diagnosis of ASP focuses too much on criminal/exploitative behavior and not on the attitudes and psychological set of the perpetrator. ASP generally have a conscience, however, warped, and however skillful they are at turning it off at crucial moments – their conscience, however, attenuated, remains. The psychopath does not have a conscience. Furthermore, the psychopath’s narcissism is absolutely central to his or her character, not merely a strong component as it is in ASP. Therefore, a clear differentiation of both character types is useful. Black does talk about all the aspects of the psychopath and ASP, but sees them as one and the same. Hare’s work, therefore, is far more useful.
Carr, James The book is published by a fringe beyond fringe anarcho-syndicalist group, and their politics, which Carr gravitated to, frames the book in forward and afterwards. Far more important than this rigid ideology is Carr’s story. Many of the hardest men were not born bad, although they might have been born with a hair-trigger temper, and ease with violent response. Put a child in harsh circumstances, and you will have someone who grows up to be a violent criminal – but many, like Carr, lived by a code, and given a chance to leave the “war zone,” willingly do so. Sadly, he was murdered soon afterwards.
Dutton, Donald, with Susan K. Golant Dutton is perhaps the pre-eminent researcher on violent males in relationships, particularly the "cyclical batterer," a man who is perniciously dependent upon his spouse or partner, this pathological need causing him to hate what he so needs. The cyclical batterer follows a stereotypical pattern of fulminating internal tension, followed by violent assault followed by spurious remorse, the latter the flip side of his dependence. In other words, the victim is either at his feet or on a pedestal. All his actions are frantic, often enraged, attempts to keep her with him - on his terms.
Ghiglieri, Michael P. Violence from the perspective of evolutionary biology. From this viewpoint, Grossman’s ON KILLING and Lonnie Athens' book (see Richard Rhodes below) display narrative explanations for actions and activities that are driven by far deeper primate/instinctive behavior. The interactionist and other theories make social experiences primary – from Ghiglieri’s perspective, these social causes are merely explanations, or at “best,” activating stimuli to what we are “made” to be.
Gilfoyle, Timothy J A PICKPOCKET'S TALE: The Underworld of Nineteenth-Century New York W.W. Norton and Company, New York, N.Y.2006 This book by acclaimed historical Timothy Gilfoyle uses, as a narrative framework, a short ninety-nine page autobiography of George Appo, a notorious "good fellow." Such a man was brave, and "nervy," and made a living by his wits rather than violence. Not to say he wouldn't fight - he would. And not to say he wasn't a victim of violence - he was shot twice, stabbed in the throat and tortured in prison. Appo's own narrative is fascinating, but what makes this book exemplary is Gilfoyle's larger study which illuminates the rise of the modern criminal underworld, 19th century penology and prisons, jurisprudence, noted crimes of the 19th century and the rise of the drug trade, as opium smoking filtered into the mainstream. Furthermore, he explains with clarity the social forces in the 19th century that created a man such as Appo. Consider the recently released and quite absurd movie, Gangs of New York. Written with grace and clarity, Gilfoyle illuminates the real world from which that fictional movie emerged.
Hare, Robert The gold standard on psychopathy. If this subject is of concern, for professional or personal reasons, this is the one book you must have.
Kellerman, Jonathan This is kind of a “cliff-notes” rendition of current research on psychopathy. Kellerman is at his best in a common-sense review of the literature regarding theories – nature or nurture? Of course it is both. Kellerman is righteously outraged and practical, offering hard-line suggestions on how to address the problem of violent kids as early as possible. At the same time, the book must be regarded as a superficial treatment of a far more complex subject – violent kids come in many varieties, motivated by many different reasons, and caused by many different factors. This complexity is lost in Kellerman’s treatment.
Moss, Jason When a parent considers one’s worst fears regarding one’s child, it usually revolves around sex, drugs and rock-and-roll. One usually doesn’t imagine one’s teenage son creating a hobby of corresponding with serial killers in prison. A true story, in which Moss decided the best way to get them to write back, was to figure out their victims’ profiles,and pretend to be that victim. Most particularly chilling was his relationship with John Wayne Gacy – this book may give you the only “opportunity” you ever have to actually see a serial killer in stalk and attack modes.
Rhodes, Richard Rhodes covers (in far more readable fashion) the work of Lonnie Athens. Athens’ theory is that violence is primarily created through an interaction between a young people and the abusive experiences they witness or suffer – what Athens calls “violentization.” At first read, it seems to make perfect sense – but there is nothing in Athens' work that explains why one violent person rapes and another gets in violent fights. In my opinion, (see Ghiglieri above), Athens' establishes the social conditions which would tend to activate traits endemic to human beings towards violence. In a sense, he tells the story that violent people tell themselves to activate their violence. A very useful work – but not the inclusive answer to violence that it purports to be.
Sereny, Gitta In 1968, Mary Bell, then eleven, killed two small children. She was seen, then, as the personification of evil. This book was written twenty-seven years later, and it will gouge a hole in your heart – how a child could be so brutalized and ripped by her upbringing that murder in turn seems to be all that she had left. This story is also one of redemption, one that shows in at least this case, that even those we believe to be the worst are often not. This should lead the reader to at least ask if the current trend in punishment of children as if they are adults makes any sense at all.
Schroeder, Barbet This well-known documentary filmmaker got the agreement of Idi Amin to simply follow him around and film him. Amin Dada showed the world exactly what he wanted them to see. It is a cliché (true though it might be) to call him a psychopathic thug, but it is very illuminating to see him on his rounds. First of all is the banality of the man! This is an incredibly boring film. He reviews military parades, takes a boat ride, directs a military exercise which he claims is the tactics by which he would have taken the Golan Heights – little boy games. Wherever he goes, he makes speeches. In his grandiose sense of self, he believes that everything he says is gold. And most of it is boring stupidity. The film is worthwhile to see the psychopath’s charm – he has a beautiful smile and a paradoxical innocence, like that of a little boy. Yet there is the staff meeting, where he scolds one of his aides, who is found dead two weeks later. And there is a moment, during a meeting with a group of doctors, where he is slightly criticized and becomes confused by what they are saying. His jovial face gets still, the eyes cold and blank, and his fingers twine together incessantly. It is the face of a cat looking at a bird, the twisting fingers like the tail, the only thing moving before the attack. A chilling moment where the abysmal internal rage of a purely megalomaniacal narcissist peeks out like fire through the cracks in a furnace door.
Weeks, Kevin, and Karas, Phyllis, BRUTAL: The Untold story of my Life Inside Whitey Bulger’s Irish Mob, Harper Collins, , New York, N.Y., 2006 Kevin Weeks was one of two partners of Whitey Bulger, the other being Stevie Flemmi. The Irish mob was not exactly “organized crime,” in the way it is commonly imagined. Instead, it was a small tight group of sociopathic predators, who looked for vulnerability, often among other gangsters, or those on the fringes, and simply took over, often killing those in their way. They also murdered other people on mere impulse. Weeks describes an incredibly violent childhood, and one could easily make a case for “nurture” creating him. Given that his other siblings are high-achieving members of society, one could also make a case for someone who was what he was born to be. In any event, within the “honest” disclosure of his life and crimes, one observes the same pure selfishness and ability of dissociate himself from his violence that we hear from typical psychopaths. He mouths the sentimental platitudes about not harming women and kids and protecting kids from predators, but participated in the murder of the daughter of Flemmi’s “lover,” whom the latter had been molesting. (At what age he started is not clear, so Weeks might claim it was “consensual”). Were Weeks to read this, he would demand that I say it to him face-to-face, confident that he could break me like he did so many hundreds of other people in his career as a bouncer and predatory thug. His solution to both misrepresentation or a truth he did not like was to break bones, just as his loyalty to Flemmi and Bulger made him willing to commit any mayhem without any disquiet whatsoever. Interestingly, one of his greatest advantage over others was that he didn’t fear consequences. After a stretch in Federal prison, however, he is trying to lead, per his own account, a clean life, and devote time to his sons. Having something to lose, we citizens are safer. In sum, this is the self-serving biography of a vicious, ultra-violent man who is quite at peace with himself, and yet, as is the type, quite charming and intelligent at the same time. A human leopard who preyed on his own kind – and us, too, who are, fundamentally, not his kind at all.
CULTURE, HISTORY & PEOPLE Bragg, Rick Beautiful, heartbreaking stories of the Deep South of several generations ago. Bragg writes of his grandfather: “He was a tall, bone-thin man who worked with nails in his teeth and a roofing hatchet in a fist as hard as Augusta brick, who ran a trotline across the Coosa baited with chicken guts and caught washtubs full of catfish, who cooked good white whiskey in the pines, drank his own product and sang, laughed and buck-danced, under the stars…He was just a man, I guess, whose wings never quite fit him right…”
Carhart, Thad THE PIANO SHOP ON THE LEFT BANK: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier Random House, New York, N.Y., 2001 A wonderful book on pianos, on piano playing and on real Parisian culture: that of small shops, neighborhoods and a cultured, yet unpretentious love of craft and beauty. And, the account of the piano delivery-man strapping a 600+ pound baby grand to his back and carrying it up three flights of stairs is worth the book in itself!
Edgerton, Robert B. A very courageous book which asserts that societies, just like individuals, can be pathological, and no amount of either political correctness or moral relativism can “reframe” or excuse many cultural rules. It has been comforting to some to blame every ill in the world on the influence of West, but in a wide-ranging survey (not sparing the West either), Edgerton asserts that there are universal human standards which clearly show when a society is pernicious or nourishing to its own.
Ehrlich, Gretel Both a history and a portrayal of the current-day life of the Polar Inuit of Greenland. The stories are beautiful, as are the descriptions of the landscape and the people.
Fowler, Edward Fowler writes about his entry into San'ya, a ghetto area of Tokyo, largely unknown to Japanese society, much less the rest of the world. One of several areas that are "built" around day-laborers, the men who actually constructed much of modern Japan, while being exploited and then abandoned when they are too broken down to use anymore. Fowler not only observed, but also worked as a day laborer for six months. Written about the late 1980's, early 1990's, it is, by his own account, quite out of date, but illuminates a Japan little known and little cared for. Finally, it fleshes out my own small episode in San'ya, described in my own book, Dueling with Osensei.
Goldberg, Michelle An expose of the ongoing attempt to take-over American society by the "dominionist" movement - an ever increasingly powerful movement within right-wing Christianity which seeks to establish a Christian theocracy - an American run by an unreasoning adherence to a totalitarian interpretation of Biblical authority. The American analogues to the Taliban. The book is, at the same time, both witty and fair.
Gopnik, Adam An absolutely lovely book. I would give my eyeteeth to write with as much style and grace. The gentle collision of Americans with Paris - father, mother and small children. A most civilized man meets that most civilized of countries - all entangled with the ironclad irrationalities of a culture that functions through rampant bureaucracy.
Gwynne, S.C. EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON: Quannah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History Scribner, New York, N.Y. 2010 An evenhanded story of the Comanches, perhaps the best horsemen who ever lived, who stopped the Spanish drive northwards from Mexico and the French expansion westward from Louisiana. Further, they rolled back the American frontier for decades. This is a saga of a a people both ferocious - torture was a recreation - and free, as well as the unimaginably brave pioneers who moved into their land creating a tragic and horrific collision. Gwynne is a splendid writer and he brings to life both Indian and white. This book should be followed by Cormac McCarthy's fictional account, Blood Meridian.
Guest, Robert THE SHACKLED CONTINENT: Africa’s past, Present and Future Pan Books, London, Great Britain., 2004 Guest, a noted writer for “The Economist,” writes with harsh honesty about sub-Saharan Africa. Because of this, he has been accused of all the usual suspects: racism, and capitalist/imperialist sympathies. His “crime” is to point out that, as devastating as colonialism, slavery and world economic policies may have been, what is most ravaging Africa today is the corruption and greed of it’s leaders. Why doesn’t aid work - because it is stolen or misused. He takes on the failure of socialism, of educational strategies, of land redistribution, of demands for Western working conditions and wages, and the ravages of AIDS. He explains in simple language why some countries are surviving and some are not. It is not “tribalism” that destroys African countries – it is the manipulation of tribal alliances that fosters both corruption, and provides a scapegoat for the leaders to deflect passions away from their own abysmal failures. Finally, Guest describes what needs to be done.
Hartley, Aidan This book is four things at once: 1. An elegy for a lost Africa – an entire continent rich in cultures and nations, mulched both by colonial wars and dissection into artificial boundaries, but also by the naïve attempts to forcibly remake the people. 2. This recovery of two lives – Hartley’s father, a giant of a man who lived most of his life in Africa and Aden, assisting people in agricultural projects, whose last words were, “We never should have come,” and his best friend, Peter Davey, a colonial officer killed in Aden. 3. A mordant and horrifying account of some of the worst atrocities of modern times, including Somalia and Rwanda. Most notable in the book is his chapter on Somalia, which provides a very clear analysis of “why the people we came to help quickly came to kill us.” A counter-balance to the heroic, one-dimensional movie "Blackhawk Down" (Note that the book, Blackhawk Down is far more measured and complete, but even here, Hartley’s brief analysis puts America’s naiveté and arrogance in its place). Perhaps the best lesson here is a quote of Seyyid Mohamed ibn Abdullah Hassan, who fought and regularly defeated the British for over 20 years at the turn of the 20th century – “I like war,” he wrote to the British once in red ink. “You do not. God willing, I will take many more rifles from you, but I will not take your country. I have no forts or houses or cultivation, no silver or gold for you to take. I have no artificers. The country is desert and of no use. There is wood and stone and many ant heaps. But all you will get from me is war, nothing else.” 4. A searingly honest story of those most courageous of voyeurs, the war correspondents, who, on the one hand, step unarmed but for camera and pen into the most horrific of war zones, “getting the truth out,” but also hovering like vultures over carnage, looking for something new, something yet more awful to justify their presence.
Holland, Tom RUBICON: The Last Years of the Roman Republic Anchor Books, New York, N.Y., 2003
The Roman Empire bears, in the most superficial sense, some similarities to that of America. Yet despite these parallels, they were a people and culture alien to an almost uncanny degree to modern Europeans and Americans. Holland’s book is a swashbuckling account of the rise of Empire in Roman and its concurrent destruction to the idea of a Republic – power exquisitely controlled through checks and balances. It also offers an engaging and witty portrayal of daily life in Rome: the character of its people and their relations among each other.
Marshall, Andrew A very enjoyable travelogue and history book, with a heart of outrage. Marshall recovers the history of one of the great Victorian adventurer/imperialists, the five-foot- and-a-little George Scott, who brought the Shan States and other tribal areas into modern Burma, introduced soccer, and explored some of the most exotic (to us!) peoples on earth. Scott was an example of what Jack London called “the inevitable white man,” so convinced of his own rectitude and superiority that he carried whole nations into the English empire single-handed. He had a life that, if nothing else, is a testimony of the charisma of absolute certitude coupled with bravery. Marshall chronicles his own travels through modern Burma, a typical example of the modern English travel writer, one who no longer builds empires, but delights not only in all he sees, but also the discomforts he encounters on the way. His portrayals of modern “tribal” peoples are contrasted with the way they were 100 years ago during Scott’s time. This book is, however, not merely a lighthearted travelogue. It is also an indictment of the Burmese government and army, who have turned the entire country in a narcoterrorist kleptocracy, supplying the bulk of the world’s heroin, a large amount of Asia’s methamphetamine, and genocidal ethnic cleansing. One general, when asked about the tribal peoples at a party, is quoted as saying, “The only thing I know about them is how to kill them.” Above all else, it illustrates how a government, with enough time (four years training per boy) and power can turn 400,000 of it’s own nation’s youth into trained killers of their own people.
Osborne, Lawrence An account of the morally ambiguous (they attempt strenuously to be ethical and respectful) four-times-a-year tours to back-country New Guinea to contact the Kombai - tribal people who have never met people outside their culture before. The descriptions of first contact of white man and tree-house living warrior are amazing, illustrating that xenophobia/violence is probably as innate a drive as hunger and sex. After a gift of tobacco averts one man from shooting the visitor/tourist with an arrow, the warrior says with acute distress, “I am scared of your clothes. We would be less afraid if you were naked, if you smelled like us!”
Thompson, Robert Farris TANGO: The Art History of Love Pantheon Books, New York, N.Y., 2005 What can I say - just read this wonderful book, the best and most luscious book on any art form that I've ever read. Thompson writes of the unacknowledged African roots in Tango, tracing things back to the Kongo, a culture for whom movement and dance were the living language of worship.
Toth, Jennifer An account of some of the hundreds of people who lived underneath the streets of New York in abandoned subway tunnels in the late 1980's, early 1990's. There are loners, misanthropic and insane, and there are also rough communities, even children. I am amazed at the courage of this woman who went into what many of us more fear – the dark underground, but not, like caves, inhabited only by our fears and fantasies, but by real people, with nothing to left to lose. It must be noted, however, that there is some controversy regarding this book - her descriptions about the tunnels, in particular, often do not conform the the facts of the NYC subway and rail system, both in small and large details. This, not surprisingly, leads some to a conclusion that her descriptions of people, as well, may not be wholly accurate. I did a web search on the names of some of the people described in the book, and found several newspaper articles which described that individual - circumstances and character - in much the same manner as Ms. Toth.
Weatherford, Jack He abolished torture in all the lands he ruled, established freedom of religion and destroyed feudal and aristocratic systems. He conquered most of the known world using the same principals of nomads herding stock (one doesn’t earn honor herding goats or cows, one just gets the job done as expediently as possible). Within two generations, the Mongols had sent an ambassador to the court of England where he celebrated communion (the ambassador, like many, was Assyrian Christian). And before the later depredations of psychopathic Timurlane, with whom the earlier Mongols were confused, coupled with the European racism of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Mongols were seen in many ways as the exemplars of the modern, civil state. Though they were utterly ruthless in war, they were vastly more decent to those they ruled than any contemporaneous culture in Europe or Asia – astonishingly, under Khublai Khan, China had a lower death penalty rate than the modern United States! The author rightly states that Genghis Khan, along with Jesus, was probably the one of the two most influential human beings in history. The modern monetary system, world trade, modern warfare, and the beginnings of a “world culture” all owe their start to the Mongols. Had not the black plague devastated their empire (before it did so to Europe), the world would be an unimaginably different place. The book is based on the author’s (and his Mongol fellow scholars’) research of the “Secret History,” the nearly contemporarily written Mongol account of their own Empire, quite at variance with that written by their foes.
Wright, Ronald A history of the conquest of the Americas derived from contemporary and near-contemporary Indian accounts. Stunning in its portrayal of what the Inca, Aztec, Cherokee and Iroquois nations were (and are) really like. And stunning in the realization that the conquest took place as a wave of plague preceded the Europeans across the entire continent, probably killing over 90% of the population in each Indian culture before the wars started. And stunning in the realization that what we believe to be Indian culture were the heroic recreations by the survivors of these plagues, replacing often far more sophisticated peoples. Beautifully written, I still found it hard-going, reading only a chapter at a time, as it encompasses a Holocaust far more complete that the Nazi’s campaign against the Jews and Gypsies. Yet it is also inspiring because, all four cultures not only survive, but also continue to resist. This book does gloss over the atrocities committed among the various Indian tribes themselves. But it is clear that what happened in the Americas was the destruction of rich civilizations – nations of Europe destroying nations of America – rather than the mere subjugation of the primitive by the civilized. DRUGS & ALCOHOL De Rienzo, Paul, & Beal, Dana & The Staten Island Project There is a cure for drug addiction - for heroin, methadone, cocaine, methamphetamine, alcohol, even nicotine. Ibogaine is an alkaloid, derived from the roots of Tabernathea Iboga, a plant from West Africa, which has been used in ritual initiations for eons. Banned in the US because of its profound psychoactive properties, Ibogaine is not, however, a drug for recreational trips. Instead, it seems to activate the brain into the evoking and processing through of memories. In short, one sinks into a REM-like state in which all the flaws in one's characters, all its twists, turns and sins are reviewed and laid to rest. That complete, most users emerge into a confrontation with some kind of divine being(s). The experience can be long and harrowing, but people reportedly emerge as if they digested and completely resolved all the issues in their lives which led them into addiction. In addition, the chemical selectively affects receptors in the brain which allow one to detox from addictive substances with little or no withdrawal symptoms, an elimination of craving for the drug, and depending on the substance, either a revulsion towards it or an inability for the body to respond to it for a period of up to six months. Although some researchers are trying to find analogous compounds that will separate the detoxing properties from the psychoactive, it is very possible that the dream-like processing of past experience is essential for recovery from addiction. Ibogaine does not work on everyone - in particular, some people truly like being addicts and they, in particular, will likely return to drugs. Other people relapse and require one or two "booster" experiences. But for most, the change is radical and it is complete. The book is a trip in itself - a patchwork of neurobiology, news articles, scientific studies, the meandering story of how this substance and its advocates have been treated (and treat each other) in the decades since its potential for treatment were discovered - and a lot of score-settling concerning the NY drug treatment community, and radical-hip left wing politics. Its politics may not please nor may the non-linear style - another perspective is that it's too big a tale to tell in a straight line. Whether you do or not, the scientific information is there. Dana Beal is a wild man, and to call this book chaotic would be an understatement. Nonetheless, there is a lot of information here - which should spark a search for more - look up Ibogaine on the web and see what I mean. An end to the utterly fruitless and stupid "drug war" would be a blessing on us all, but such an end is easier to conceive with a tool to get people off drugs - both physically and psychologically. The research on Ibogaine pretty clearly establishes that such a tool already exists. Ibogaine would not be for everyone - but it would be for many. The book is published on-line. If you want a hard copy, you can try the publisher at Autonomedia. If they no longer have it in stock, a simple websearch will reveal a variety of new and used book sources.
Jay, Mike In the Rig Veda, the earliest sacred text of the Indo-Europeans, there are dozens of hymns to soma, an unknown, apparently psychedelic plant which took the user "to the realm of the gods on its 'blue tide.' Mike Jay searches for the roots of soma within literature, travel and imbibing the herbs themselves, coming to the very likely conclusion that soma was derived from Syrian Rue, the seeds of which contain a potent MAO inhibiter called Harmaline. This substance, combined with various other plants containing DMT is at the core of the most powerful psychoactive ritual plants used in the New World. Quite entertaining, the book is most interesting in tracing the roots of religion through shamanistic practices in which psychoactive plants play a substantial part, to their abandonment which religions assume a organized structure under a priest class to a third stage in which, within the framework of some religion and doctrine, the worshiper finds his or her own way. Wandering around the line where prehistory meets history, touching on such cultures as the Scythians and Zoroastrians, one gets a sense of a hidden history in which our direct ancestors first apprehended the both the concept and the actual face of divinity through the aid of psychoactive plants.
Peele, Stanton THE DISEASING OF AMERICA: Addiction Treatment Out of Control An indictment of the current common “wisdom” that deviant behavior – drug and alcohol addiction, gambling, overeating, too much or the wrong kind of sex, even crime – is a disease.
ISLAM & THE WEST
Griffin, Nicholas Both a travel book and history of the war between the Muslim mountain people and the Russians – not today, but one hundred and fifty years ago, showing that nothing has been learned, and nothing has changed. Will serve to illuminate the threat that faces our world today – not simply Islamic fanaticism, but also the stupidity of trying to force an alien culture and worldview upon people who will die for their own.
Jones, Ann KABUL IN WINTER: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan Metropolitan Books, New York, N.Y., 2006 If this book does not enrage you to white-hot fury, you have neither heart nor good sense. The first rage will be will be elicited at accounts of how women were treated not only during the Taliban years, but now, in the alleged freedom and democracy the United States has supposedly brought in. This is a place where women are imprisoned as immoral when they are raped - not in the countryside, but in Kabul itself. And that is what brings up the second kind of rage - how through cack-handed smug idiocy, we have once again abandoned Afghanistan to chaos and brutality - and this time, through poorly thought out plans for redevelopment, rarely carried out to completion, that fund the NGOs and government contractors, far more than the Afgani people.
Lewis, Bernard THE CRISIS OF ISLAM: Holy War and Unholy Terror A brief work that sums up with impeccable clarity many of the dilemmas within the Muslim world as well as many of the significant factors causing such conflict between a far from monolithic West and an equally far from monolithic Muslim world.
Muhammad Knight, Michael M.M.K. is a punk sufi Muslim, at least at last reading, traveling through America by Greyhound Bus, searching down the history and grave of W.D. Fard, the mysterious founder of the Nation of Islam, "building" with the 5% group, distressing the progressives and raging at the rigid conservatives, all the while putting the moves on young ladies in Hijab. A former backyard "pro-wrestler," son of a schizophrenic rapist Nazi, he found Islam as a teen providing something sure and solid, but soon rejected the rigidities of doctrinal fundamentalism as maddening as his crazy father. You will learn about cults you never even heard of, and learn secret histories interspersed among post-adolesecent sulks and soul-searching. Islam in American is not anything like you imagined. And if this is what HAPPENS to Islam when it hits American, no wonder the fundamentalists are scared.
Mamdani, Mahmood GOOD MUSLIM, BAD MUSLIM: America, The Cold War, and the Roots of Terror Doubleday, New York, N.Y., 2004 A fine book on the results of two laws: that of “unintended consequences,” and that of “abysmally poor thought out planning.” Sketches out in painful detail the emergence of America as a country that blithely rejects international law as having any say in American actions in the world, due to a grandiose sense of our own righteousness. Mambani shows America’s role in the creation of Muslim terrorists who now besiege us, and also how we, through our CIA have consistently turned a blind eye or even actively colluded with drug growers and smugglers to use their money and support to finance what we consider larger issues, such as the confrontation with communism. The book makes a distinction between a fundamentalist, conservative Islam and a radical political movement identified with Islam. However, it is weakest in a portrayal of the Muslim world as somehow devoid of the same level of moral responsibility that he demands of the U.S. and Israel. He seems to make the Arab world’s dilemma almost exclusively a result of what outsiders have done to them, and in his discussion of suicide bombing and“necklacing” in South Africa (the planting of burning tires around the necks of suspected collaborators, achieves an academic distance from the subject that is chillingly detached. This caveat aside, an excellent antidote to the Good –Evil and Clash-of-Civilization ideology that so permeates current American politics.
Manji, Irshad THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM TODAY St. Martin’s Griffin, New York, N.Y., 2005 Who better to critique Islam than an irreverent, sarcastic, young Muslim lesbian? Her sarcasm brings frequent smiles, but her purpose is deadly serious – to question Islam from within – not merely the radical “political” Islam of al Qaeda, but mainstream Islam itself. She sees her religion as on hijacked by insular desert values, and a never reflected upon amalgamation of the Koran, the hadith, and the deeply oppressive customs of Arab culture – including religious sanction for slavery, for anti-semitism and hatred of religions not “of the book,” or schismatic, and profoundly oppressive of women. She revives Islam’s abandoned tradition of “itjihad,” an independent questioning of doctrine handed down without question. Manji has a reputation within even the progressive Muslim community as being a self-promoter, who sets herself up as an individual alone, thereby slighting countless others who are also fighting to reform Islam. Nonetheless, a worthwhile book - taken it, perhaps, with a grain of salt or two. Meyer, Karl E. The history and politics of imperialism in Central Asia. Describes in detail how paternalistic intervention (“indirect imperialism”) engenders the same hatred and, ultimately, chaos, that direct imperialism does (note – compare the United States to Great Britain). Revives a tremendous amount of lost history, including the startling fact that at the time of India’s fight for independent, the Pashtuns espoused a pacifist movement encouraging women’s rights and maintaining a union with India. This was suppressed by Great Britain, and the consequences of such a divide-and-conquer strategy are the Taliban. Also important is an analysis of Iran, and how first Great Britain and Russia, and then later America forestalled the creation of a modern state, including the suppression of democracy, resulting in the present theocratic state. One conclusion that is reached by the end of this book is that non-intervention may make the best friends. Perhaps the most intellectually exciting is a brief analysis at the end of America’s only real political gift to the world – not democracy, but Federalism – the joining together of diverse and contentious states in a system which encourages differentiation amidst mutual support. Although unheralded, this was at the core of the Marshall Plan, and the resulting Common Market and European Union are perhaps the greatest guarantees of peace through most of Europe. Meyer makes the daring proposal that Federalism should similarly be encouraged in such regions as the Caucasus and Central Asia, making aid contingent on cooperation among states rather than further fissioning. Seale, Patrick An excellent biography of a harsh, murderous, yet courageous man – both statesman and tyrant. Of all perspectives in the Middle East, the Syrian is the least understood in the West. Seale does not sugar-coat Asad’s life or regime, but also allows us to see Asad’s fight for an Arabic nation, dominated by neither religious fanaticism, the West, or Israeli hegemony. There are two, or even more sides to any story, and this is Syria’s.
Thornton, Bruce S. Why do powerful states give in? Highlighting two disasterous collapses: Athens and the other Greek city states in the face of Phillip of Macedonia, and Neville Chamberlain and Western Europe in the face of Hitler, and a third potential collapse exemplified by current United States policies towards Islamist terrorism and aggressive states such as Iran. I do believe, that in reaction to the Liberal-Left tendency to highlight American mistakes and blame all other cultures' and countries flaws on the West, that he glosses over truly terrible things that America has done throughout much of our history, BUT this does not negate his central point - that assuming that others share the same values, hopes and dreams, so that we can negotiate with anyone is puerile and naive. (Which can also be spelled "Jimmy Carter"). He highlights the fact that our democracy has inherent weaknesses that make us vulnerable to an ideologically committed foe - the parallels he draws between Neville Chamberlain and, in particular, but not exclusively, democratic politicians such as Carter, Clinton and now Obama, is striking. This different is illustrated in the cover photo of the hardbound version, Chamberlain's handshake with Hitler. Note that Hitler stands above Chamberlain, but further, note the differences in the facial expressions of the two men. Chamberlain's eyes crinkle in a genuine smile - his face is soft and body posture defenseless. Hitler leans forward, taut, as if ready to pounce. And note the "smile" - his teeth are bared and the eyes wide open, with no laughter lines. There is a light in the eyes, to be sure, but it is the energy of a predator gazing at something soft and weak. How do you negotiate with that?
Totten, Michael J. Jeffrey Goldberg, author of Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror, writes: ". . . an absolutely fearless reporter, both physically - he has explored the darkest corners of Middle East extremism - and morally. No one is as clear-eyed as Totten on the subject of Iran's repressive regime . . ." Unfortunately, too many people in the West, approaching the subject of Lebanon, simply gloss it over as a place of chaos. Totten delineates the dizzying array of factions, each at war with many of the others, now all of whom are dominated by Iran's proxy, Hezbollah. Lebanon, due to geography, has the role of an arc stone: chaos there reverberates throughout the Middle East, and Totten, through concise chapters, full of vivid characters and adventures, clearly explains the part of Syria, Iran, and Israel from the state level, and on a factional level, Hezbollah, and Amal among the Shiites, the Sunni's, who are divided among both militants and nearly pacifists (Sinora and Hariri), the Druze and Allawites and the various Christian groups who range from Maronite groups focused on survival among a Muslim world to the murderous SSNP, a Nazi sympathizing group which finds common cause with Hezbollah. Read this book! LAW ENFORCEMENT, GANGS, & CRIME
Egan, Timothy Remarkable not only for the details of the specific case, the murder of a marshal in Pend Oreille County, Washington by Spokane police officers in 1935, and the solving of that crime in 1989 by driven then-sheriff of Pend Oreille, Tony Bamonte. At the time, it was the nation's oldest continuing murder investigation. Of perhaps far more interest is the description of Depression-era of so-called law enforcement, a time where far too many police were hired thugs, who beat the poor, lived off corruption and some did even worse: robbed, raped and murdered. And where loyalty to one's own even superseded solving the murder of one's own.
Gladwell, Malcom A very gracefully written book on neuroscience related to "thin slicing" - how we make accurate evaluations and decisions with minimal data, such decisions being, in many circumstances far more accurate than "well-thought-out" plans. The book is particularly relevant to law enforcement because of his detailed discussion on how and why emergency decision making goes wrong. One provocative example: There are more police shootings and critical incidents when two officers arrive on a scene in a car as opposed to one. An essential book for anyone who has to make decisions that matter.
Glenny, Mischa McMafia: Seriously Organized Crime, Vintage Books, Great Britain, 2009 According to GQ, “To be regarded as one of the essential non-fiction works of our time. Filled with exotic locations, staggering facts, acts of incredible brutality and colorful, if deadly, characters.” The globalization of our world economy has led to the globalization of crime – if you are a consumer, you are likely, in one way or another, participating in criminal acts, at once or at most twice remove. The traffic ranges from drugs, guns and vulnerable women, to “protection” and cons – and multi-government involvement including banking fraud, money laundering and the manufacturing and participating in wars, fueling by ethnic hatred and nationalism. Wars mean power and money – and the Mafias and nations of the world agree. Gunty, Laurie The tragedy of Jamaica. From the slaughter of the Arawaks through the violence of colonialism, replaced by an internalized racism of lighter skin against darker, all of this a backdrop to the proxy war waged for decades between two political parties and two men: Michael Manley and Edward Seaga. Manley and Seaga recruited impoverished kids to kill each other for crumbs from the politicians table, and when, fueled by cocaine most likely brought in by the politicians themselves, things got out of hand, the police began to enact "extrajudicial killings" - murders, in other words, in a reign of terror. The gangsters, brutalized both by the world they grew up in, and the violence they carried out themselves, went international - becoming leaders in the 80's and 90's in the spread of crack cocaine, and leaders, too, in murders of each other and of innocents in the communities they lived. Gunty's book is remarkable for catching the humanity - the desperation and lost opportunities of the "sufferers" - the poorest of the poor. As one of her friends harshly tells her when she upbraids an informant telling stories of a gang-leader's murders, "You are not here to say who is good and who is bad. You should only be committed to reality."
Kaplan, David E. & Dubro, Alec YAKUZA: Japan’s Criminal Underworld An excellent history of not only the yakuza, but also Japan’s right wing. The latter, true successors to the samurai, have been inextricably intertwined with the gangster underground. At one time, the right wing “ran” the yakuza – now it seems to be the reverse. A startling book – one may be aware that the yakuza are a large criminal element in Japan, but this book establishes that they are not only internationally influential in the criminal world, but hold both enormous economic and political power within Japan.
Sher, Julian, and Marsden, William Driving in Vancouver, I recall passing a white building with red trim, which a high fence – a regional headquarters of a chapter of the Hells Angels. It was, essentially, a castle. 1/4 of all Hells Angels are in Canada, and they are the largest organized criminal organization in the country. Not only involved in drug smuggling and prostitution, they are now a sophisticated syndicate laundering money in a number of legal enterprises. They also kill startling numbers of rivals, and have essentially laughed off law enforcement, not only murdering corrections officers, but also bombing both homes and buildings of law enforcement. Worlds away from Hunter Thompson’s book of the late sixties – the bikes are almost extraneous trappings to a constantly expanding cancer of criminals, at once sophisticated and thuggish. On the law enforcement side, a frustrating story of dedicated cops, struggling with incredible incompetence and underfunding on a provincial and national level. The law enforcement agencies have terribly failed the citizens of Canada – the book shows how the barbarians simply walked in the open gates.
Valentine, Douglas THE STRENGTH OF THE WOLF: The Secret History of America's War on Drugs Verso, London and New York, 2004 Not only the complete history of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), the book provides a very comprehensive overview of the development of organized crime in America, the role of the CIA in drug smuggling and experimentation, and the intertwining braid of anti-Communist obsession, political graft and the Mob. The FBN was headed by the power-hungry, self-serving grandstanding Harry Anslinger. It was twisted from the very beginning by politicians with an agenda against world Communism which led them to aid and abet any "anti-Communist" person or nation who, just incidentally, smuggled drugs into America. Its bureaucracy was horrendous, and its case agents remarkable. Some were among the greatest law enforcement agents in the history of the United States, some were stone evil criminals and some were a mixture of both - great agents and corrupt at the same time. The larger issue is this - when one reads this maddening book, one sees, once again, honorable men fighting the wrong war, the wrong way. The "drug war" in America has almost eliminated the 4th Amendment (against unlawful searches and seizures) - this was a recent dissenting statement in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. As I read, I could only imagine this "war" like trying to do sumo on quicksand - no matter how bravely you fight, you will sink in the end, and very likely, pull down some others in the process. As one reviewer put it. "A expose of the never-ending lap-dance between organized crime and the national security establishment." Jon Hougan
MENTAL ILLNESS & TREATMENT Amens, Daniel Before reading this book, I believed that ADD was vastly over-diagnosed. I now believe that it is misdiagnosed, ineptly diagnosed, over-and-under diagnosed. Amens is at the forefront of a revolution in psychiatry, using SPECT scans to actually observe brain activity. Thus, rather than a clinicians all-too-fallible interpretation of behavior, one can literally quantify and delineate exactly what is going wrong within a person’s brain. I strongly recommend that any person concerned about a child with a life-long disturbance of attention and behavior read this book. It is very possible that in 50 years or so, the entire panoply of mental health diagnoses may change – based on the observation of clear malfunctions within the brain. I am not suggesting that psychological disturbance will no longer exist, nor that mind and soul are merely a “secretion” of the brain, but Amens makes a very convincing case to work with the hardware (neurology) in addition to the software (psychology). However, Amens has been faulted in not establishing through full studies the veracity of what he claims. It is, as yet unclear, if through his SPECT scans, he takes a snapshot in the moment, or if he is capturing a picture of a consistent brain state in his patients.
Jamison, Kay Redfield Jamison is an eminent psychiatrist and researcher on bipolar disorder (manic-depression). She also suffers from it herself, and this book provides a sometimes beautiful and sometimes lacerating picture of what this disease can do to a beautiful mind. If you have ever wondered why so many bipolar people resist taking medication, her portrayal of both the awe-inspiring joys and terrors of the manic state will offer much insight.
Malbin, Diane A short, excellent booklet to provide the most essential information about fetal alcohol damage. Particularly useful is descriptions on how the children (and adults) process information – both cognitive and emotional.
Nasar, Sylvia Simon & Schuster, New York, N.Y., 1998 The book is finer than the excellent movie. Although John Nash’s life is unique in so many ways, not the least of which is his spontaneous recovery from schizophrenia, the book allows us a window on how the mind breaks under the assault of schizophrenia.
Schwartz, Jeffrey (with Beverly Beyette) Schwartz has revolutionized treatment of OCD. Instead of the typical treatment of drugs and/or often cruel and ineffective deconditioning, Schwartz has developed a simple method of using cognitive therapy – changing one’s mind by changing one’s interpretation of experience – to effect cure of this terrible disorder. What is most remarkable is that brain scans establish that by using this treatment, one changes the chemistry and more incredibly, the structure of the brain itself.
Siegel, Ronald K. Siegel is a true researcher. He knows the literature, he knows the science, and he puts himself on the line in a most remarkable way. Sometimes he meets his research subjects wearing a bulletproof vest, and given his subjects, he needs the protection! His stories are outrageous, wonderfully written, and both compassionate and horrifying. One finishes the book well-educated about the paranoid state and enormously entertained.
Sommer, Christina Hoff & Satel, Sally A discussion of how therapy-gone-wrong (called “therapism” by the authors), undermines self-reliance in our culture. Particularly valuable are the discussions on the misuse of “critical incident stress debriefing,” the pathologizing of normal reactions to crises (the “epidemic” of the PTSD diagnosis), and the treatment of children as vulnerable and fragile, thereby creating kids without resilience or resources to handle life.
Winchester, Simon I find the best books regarding mental illness are often literature. A gem of a book on the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary and two men: Professor James Murray, a polymath linguist and head of the organizing committee, and Dr. W.C. Minor, a brilliant physician and Civil War Veteran, perhaps the most significant contributor to the dictionary, who submitted over 10,000 definitions. Minor was also a “madman,” confined at the Broadmore asylum for the criminally insane, after he murdered a man whom he thought was part of a pervasive conspiracy against him. Probably paranoid schizophrenic, a disease perhaps precipitated by the horrors of the Civil War, the book describes this uncommon friendship of brilliant, beautiful minds.
NATURAL WORLD Baron, David
Marzluff, John M., and Angell, Tony IN THE COMPANY OF CROWS AND RAVENS Yale University Press, New York, NY, 2005 On the nature of the various members of the corvid family, a family which, in a sense, includes humanity. The behaviors of crows and ravens, perhaps more than any other species, coevolve with the behaviors of human beings. From Carrion Crows in Japan who carefully place nuts beneath the wheels of cars at a stop-light to American crows who arrange themselves on both sides of a tennis net, while one flies in the middle bouncing a ball off the net, crows and ravens change behaviors and even develop and merge species based on what is happening in the human world.
Woods,, Vanessa
The second line is ours. We, too, go to war, and we, too, are xenophobic, However, our emotions are not so passionate, nor is are stranger-hate so profound. Despite our capacity for war, we can also cooperate and our brilliant minds enable this wonderful human world we live in. In a Biblical sense, we are those who ate from the tree of knowledge. What if we had not? What if we had stayed in the Garden of Eden? In a sense, we know the answer. The third line: Bonobos. They are a gentle cooperative species, where the babies are alpha (!) If a small one approaches the largest male, who is eating, the latter will immediately feed the baby. Females cooperate to discipline males who are too aggressive. The animals have a far higher level of testasterone than either chimps or humans, but contrary to the cliche, what this means is that they are very sexual animals, not violent ones. The backdrop of this book, about a woman who began working in a rescue preserve for Bonobos, is the country where it is located: the Congo, riven by the worst, most horrible war since WWII. The counterpoint of poles of chimpanzees and bonobos, is played out in the ferocity and gentility of the people of the Congo. In the eyes of our two cousins, together, we see ourselves.
PERSONAL SAFETY & SELF-DEFENSE De Becker, Gavin I’m at a loss what section to put this book, because it is also a wonderful book on assessment, and on crime and criminals. Well-written, scintillatingly intelligent, de Becker provides not only insight on individuals such as stalkers, assassins, domestic violence and worksite violence, he provides what I consider to be the best strategies to deal with such individuals, both on a systemic and personal level. Most important, however, is his central objective – to re-establish intuitive awareness of danger as our prime tool in assessing dangerous situations and people.
De Becker, Gavin Another wonderful book by de Becker, this one on protecting one’s children – and other children. This includes teaching them what they need to know, and teaching you, as parents, what you need to know. Among the best parts of the book are sample letters to send to schools, daycares, etc., to confirm that they are ready to protect your children and put them on notice that you are aware of what their responsibilities are. The only quibbles I have with the book are as follows: de Becker states that abused children grow up to abuse others (not making a distinction between physical and sexual abuse in his statement) – this is definitely true of physical and emotional abuse – if you want a less violent America, stop allowing the violation of children. Sexual abuse, however, is not so simple – there is no well-designed research that I am aware of that can makes a strong link between being sexually abused, and later sexually violating children, although this may be true in specific cases. A second quibble is stylistic, which will be most apparent if you read his two books in succession: he quotes and/or paraphrases large swathes of the first book – using the same anecdotes, for example – in the second. The stories and explanations fit – nonetheless, it’s a lazy way to get the second book finished.
PRISON Earley, Pete Earley spent a lot of time interviewing some very bad men at Leavenworth in the late 1980’s. He focuses on five, all in the anti-social personality – psychopathy spectrum. He gets as close inside such men as one can get through the written word. Hogshie, JIm Jim Hogshire doesn't like the criminal justice system. He hates cops, corrections officers, judges, and prosecutors. He vilifies all of them in lurid vitriol. You may disagree with his politics and his perspective, except for one important point. If you are going to prison, none of those people care for you. They won't help you. And you have only a very limited ability to help yourself. His objective is to help you survive. Perhaps the best recommendation is the one given by the US Department of Justice: "A comprehensive book of advice and information from the initial contact with police to dealing with prison rape clear through the execution protocol. This book contains information on many of the dangers and scams that may be encounters along the way. . . As excellent as it is disturbing."
Wynn, Jennifer INSIDE RIKERS: Stories from the World’s Largest Penal Colony St. Martin’s Press, New York, N.Y., 2001 Jennifer Wynn entered Riker’s Island as a journalist, as a writing teacher, and then as the director of a wonderful rehabilitation program called Fresh Start. Wynn is a woman who sees the good in the hearts of some hard-core criminals. At the same time, she is a clear-eyed realist on how hard it is to leave the criminal lifestyle – outlining all the obstacles that our society has placed in the way of the newly released inmate, and also the seductions of the criminal lifestyle itself. For a man without power, power itself, in any of its forms, is a terribly entrancing addiction. One reads with joy about the men who succeed and despair at those who fail – despite given a last, best chance. Finally, Wynn clearly illuminates the sociological side of crime – for many of these men, such as one whose mother mixed liquor in the baby bottle along with his milk, one can only ask: How could they – or you - have turned out any differently.
SEXUAL ABUSE Cruise, David & Griffiths, Allison A horrifying narrative of a Nova Scotia Mountain clan, the Golers, who year after year, generation after generation, tortured and abused their children, who continued the same again. And yet, there are heroes and survivors as well.
Ofshe, Richard & Watters, Ethan A voice of sanity in the face of a terrible wrong turn in psychotherapy – an indictment of so-called “recovered memory therapy,” as well as its accompanying fantasies – Satanic and other alleged cult abuse (including that of space aliens) and the often therapist-elicited plague of so-called multiple personality disorder. Please note that I am not saying that repression of some experience does not happen – just that there has been a horrible flood of inept therapy which has been very damaging both to genuine victims of abuse, and to others who were not victims or perpetrators.
Salter, Anna Anna Salter is one of the few clinicians who works with and assesses both victims and perpetrators of abuse. I would recommend skipping or skimming the two wordy forwards by other clinicians. The first section, on the behaviors of perpetrators, is marvelous. You will get accurate research and descriptions on what perps actually do – not what they say to minimize or excuse their violations. This section will be valuable for members of the criminal justice system as well as therapists of survivors who must understand perpetrators to understand victims. The second section, on the experience of victims is also excellent. I find the last chapter, on treatment of victims, to have much very valuable general information on therapy, but I have two rather significant disagreements. 1. I am very wary of any therapy model that uses the idea, much less encourages the victim to see themselves as speaking in various “voices” – the ‘guardian,’ the ‘sadistic abuser.’ I believe that this, very often, encourages the patient in dissociative, self-hypnosis and ends up creating more pathology, particularly dissociative identity disorders (so-called multiple personality disorder). 2. I have found that therapy is most effective when one assists the patient in experiencing how different they are from who they believe they are. Rather than just an experience of ‘acceptance,’ or ‘safety within the therapy,’ I have found victims become survivors fastest when they learn how to survive. This accomplished, they are far more able and ready to reorganize themselves in relation to their traumatic experiences.
Stern, David Patricia Douglas was a young girl, aged 17, one of a hundred Hollywood extras, all girls, told they should go to Harold Roach's mansion for dancing roles in a film - as they had done before. But it was a "party," and she, like a horrifying number of others, was raped. But unlike others, she pressed charges. MGM had her doctor, the DA, the witness, even her mother in their pocket. The charges were dismissed. She filed a Federal lawsuit, the first of it's kind. Her lawyer sold her out, and later became DA. 65 years later, Stern found her. A heartbreaking documentary, where, at the end of her life, she gets a chance to speak - of a life blighted utterly by her violation. If the thought has ever occured - "it's past, why doesn't she just let it go, just get over it" - here, by a filmmaker of utter gentility, you will see "why not." And even if the studio won, she was a hero who fought against - really - an entire society that made the victim the criminal. The last words of the DA, who was supposed to be on her side, were, to the jury, "Look at her. Who would want her." Stern deserves nothing but the highest praise for his resurrection of this woman, who, innocence truly robbed, was robbed of love and the ability to love, until the very end of her life.
Yapko, Michael A book to be read along with Making Monsters (above). Yapko is one of the most eminent hypnotherapists today, and here, he explains how vulnerable people can “remember” things that never happened. Not only a critique of inept and unscientific therapy, it will prove of value not only to counselors, but also to law enforcement personnel who may be required to carry out interrogations. This book can provide valuable information to explain how someone could confess to a crime that they did not commit. WAR Asher, Michael Two remarkable books appeared after the first Iraq war – Andy McNab’s Bravo Two Zero,& Chris Ryan’s The One That Got Away, detailing the experiences of a squad of SAS soldiers, who fought an epic ongoing battle against Iraqi forces, killing over 250, destroying mobile units, and Ryan, eventually, walking all the way to Syria and freedom. Together, the books represented one of the most remarkable running battles since Xenophon’s march across Persia. According to Asher, another former SAS soldier, who retraced their steps across Iraq and who, fluent in Arabic, spoke with soldiers, police and civilians involved in this event, much of these accounts were lies. No Iraqis were killed, and McNab, and even more so, Ryan, besmirched the memory of one of their sergeants, who was blamed for their discovery. The book recognizes what was truly heroic in the squad’s actions, something far removed from McNab and Ryan’s Rambo fantasies, and in addition, is written in the grand tradition of desert loving Englishmen who travel with who some believe to be the most honest and honorable people on earth, the traditional Bedouin. Highly recommended
Baer, Robert Baer clearly shows that we - America - has been involved in a secret war with the radical edge of the Islamic world for many years. This radical edge, is not a mere fringe, however. It cuts deep, including the governments of many nations we do far too much business with. This both ties our hands and corrupts many members of our own government - in both major political parties. Baer writes an absolutely infuriating account of how under Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton, the CIA was gutted of human intelligence gathering and turned into a cover-your-ass bureaucracy. The lost opportunities to have circumvented some of our worst foreign policy disasters, including 9/11 and the disastrous Iraq war lie at the feet of all those politicians, and lickspittle bureaucratic climbers who seemed to believe that if we ignored this terrible problem, it would go away. No, Islamic terror is not a "law enforcement" problem, as the naive would have it. It is clearly a war we are in. But without the correct intelligence, we cannot make intelligent decisions on how to fight.
Blunt, Roscoe C. Jr. A simple, harrowing account of his service as an infantryman in the Second World War, fighting his way across Europe. War without romance, and he, all the more heroic for it.
Bradley, James, with Ron Powers The stories of the six young men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima in that iconic photograph. This is embedded in the story of the United States Marine's capture of Iwo Jima, which is, along with the Spartans at Thermopylae, is among the most wondrous and horrifying collective act of courage in the history of war. Agreed, how can one quantify such a thing, but as you read the accounts of this savage battle, (with its shadow of equal bravery on the part of the Japanese defenders), you will, with the safety of half a century's remove, gasp in awe at what these young men did.
Fisk, Robert Uri Avneri says, “I will tell you something about the Holocaust. It would be nice to believe that people who have undergone suffering have been purified. But it’s the opposite; it makes them worse. It corrupts. There is something in suffering that creates a kind of egoism.” Every faction in Lebanon, and both Syria and Israel became the perpetrators of horrible atrocities – imagine Picasso’s Guernica, with each body savaging the others. Fisk is one of the finest war correspondents alive. His outrage against Israel makes him quite unpopular in many circles - and this is fair, because he is frequently on record minimizing or excusing murderous atrocities on the Palestinian side. At the same time, apart from his ideology, much of his outrage is based on what he witnessed personally. Referring to Hillman’s book (see below), Lebanon was a country possessed by Mars, and all who picked up arms became murderers and torturers alike. If nothing else, a warning to all “nation-builders" – truly the road to hell is paved with good (and naïve) intentions.
Friday, Karl This is a dry – very dry – book, pure history without any swashbuckling, any inspiration or thrills. However, it is also something rare –an accurate academic account, based on primary sources, of how the warrior class in Japan actually developed – an account quite at variance to the popular history told in just about every other English text.
Hillman, James A TERRIBLE LOVE OF WAR A discussion of the psychological and mythic bases of war – that it is a force with its own life and drives. War – Ares – is a god, and will have Its way. Although beautifully written and simple, lucid prose, it is nonetheless a difficult book to grasp – gleaning essential truths about war and violence throughout history, religion and psychology. And to those who have faith that war can be “replaced” by peace, Hillman offers no comfort – the acts of war may be directed, even transmuted, but war is, he establishes part of what makes us human.
Mercado, Stephen C. An excellent history of Japan’s espionage school and service. What is ironic in the extreme is that although they fought in the service of empire, they truly did have a goal of liberating Asia from European colonialists, and – they essentially did. The author concludes that had they also succeeded in taking a leading rather than subsidiary role to the “operations” branch of the army, Japan may never have gone to war at all, and surely, in that event, would have behaved as liberators themselves, rather than as brutal colonialists in turn.
Ninh, Bao There are two faces to war, and they both are the same. A novel/memoir of the Vietnam War, by one of ten survivors of a brigade of five hundred. Achingly sad, a story of the loss of the possibility of a peaceful life, even after peace returns. So moving that, despite its lack of heroism and “social realism,” the censors of North Vietnam allowed its publication. Far more than a novel of war, it depicts what happens to love, and what happens to souls in the face of unremitting chaos and destruction.
Peters, Ralph Peters is a brilliant hard-eyed writer, who looks head-on, with brutal honesty, at how wars are won and lost, in this case, the episodic, but never ended war between two religions/civilizations: the West and the Middle East - the former an amalgam of Greek and Jewish civilizations, embodied in Christianity and the latter, Islam, a religion which is also a complete way of life and form of political organization. Peters writes about what the implications of a nuclear-armed Iran, the deterioration of Israel's military (how the citizen soldier no longer serves the country), why America loses, tactically, so many wars against insurgent tactics, how current military planning and tactics focus on small evils and thereby abet large ones. And overall, what are the implications of the eradication of genuine historical studies in our schools: that we are raising a generation of people who do not see patterns and trends, who have little comprehension of the sacrifices required to win a war, and the true damage of the arrogance of those so uneducated on both left and right. The book is beautifully written, by a man who knows what it takes to win or to lose a war.
Singer, P. W. WIRED FOR WAR: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century Penguin Books, New York, N.Y., 2009 A riddle: A man is walking down the street in Las Vegas and is shot dead by an foreign national. Arrested for murder, he says that he is a prisoner of war, and he shot an enemy pilot, justifiable as an act of war. Possible? Well, there's the question. Our hypothetical victim is, in fact, a pilot, walking to work. He will enter a cubicle and pilot a drone aircraft which will fire rockets or bombs upon the enemy in that foreign national's country. Robotics are the future of war. Far more combat missions are flown by drones, by pilots who have little to no actual experience in the air. There are combat robots, with anti-sniper capabilities. Within a very short time, the Terminator dilemma will be upon us as we are fast developing robots that will make their own decisions. What is the effect on us humans when war becomes so antiseptic? We can kill on a video screen and then go home at the end of a shift and drive our daughter to soccer practice. If the weapon in the hand of the "terrorist" was actually brandished in self-defense against a neighbor, or even worse, was merely a farming implement, how much distress will our "warrior" experience when it's just a splash of pixels on a screen. How much distress will anyone feel when the only one responsible for any error is a software designer or programmer. The age of robots is not coming - it is here. War will be irrevocably changed. We must consider ethics as well as tactics - because our world is about to become infinitely more complex. Given the subject, this may be the most important book on warfare written so far in this century.
Tucker, Mike The Karen people, Christian and Buddhist, are descendents of Tibetans, long-ago migrated into Burma. Like other non-Burmese ethnic groups, they have been terribly oppressed throughout Burmese history. They fought in exemplary fashion with the British against the Japanese in the Second World War, but after the victory, their political hopes for autonomy were betrayed. Since WWII, they have been involved in a little-known fight for freedom against the Burmese. Perhaps because they do not indulge in terror against innocents, the world doesn’t care. The Burmese, funded by China, have swept through the Karen state like a plague, murdering and raping. There is little hope that this will end before the Karen are destroyed. The author, a former marine, writes of going on patrol with a Karen National Liberation Army reconnaissance group, in their quixotic struggle to continue to fight against overwhelming odds. It is such an irony that here we have people who are, unambiguously on the right side of a war, and the world cares not – instead cravenly ingratiating itself to such murderers as the PLO and Hamas. How ironic that if the Karen’s embraced evil, bombing school children and the like, the world would probably embrace them back. The book is lightweight – merely an account of the author’s brief foray over the border of Thailand with the Karen’s on one occasion, but it is valiant in its intent and the author’s willingness to put his own life on the line for the Karen’s.
Wodnick, Bob This small book is an account of the experiences of a few soldiers who survived the Bataan Death March and Corregidor, the hell-transport ship to Japan, and slave labor and starvation. As a counterpoint, there is the story of two who stayed home, a bookish night clerk at the Strand Hotel in Everett, Washington, and his letters to a woman who was "no better than she ought to be." It is a book of heroism and humanity - but most important is the realization that in every town, there are thousands of stories just the same, of men and women surviving war, and suffering its aftermath and going on as decent human beings, nonetheless. It is a humble book, and this humility is what makes it special |
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